Book Review: Devoted by Hilary Duff

Synopsis: Since Sage was kidnapped, Clea has no way of knowing if he is alive or dead. And even though she has only just discovered they were soulmates, she feels like a part of her is lost forever. What’s worse, she can’t even turn to her best friend Ben—because every time she looks at him, all she sees is his betrayal.

But waiting for something to happen is not an option, so Clea is ready for action. Suffering through dreams of seeing Sage with another woman, she makes an uneasy alliance with Sage’s enemies and sets out to be reunited with Sage…in this life or the next.

Review: I was intrigued when I heard about Hilary Duff’s novels and when I received Devoted for review I was open minded about reading it, even though I hadn’t read the first novel in the series Elixir. To be honest, I was really disappointed with this story. It certainly had potential but its delivery was lacklustre. The first couple of chapters basically recapped (I assume) the first novel, so I felt like I was able to catch up on what happened in Elixir. But it was written in a bland introspective way that didn’t get me hooked into the story.

The main failing of this story is the characters. Clea was really unlikeable; she was quite selfish and completely absorbed in reconnecting with her long lost love Sage no matter who ended up hurt along the way. I really liked the character of Ben, who made up the love triangle for the story but didn’t really see why he was interested in Clea. Perhaps I missed out on some of their backstory because I didn’t read Elixir. The story revolves around Clea trying to find Sage and I felt like there was no depth to her character, she was completely undefined and really had nothing else happening in her life except finding Sage.

Devoted is quite a quick read (thankfully!) and ends with a cliff-hanger, setting it up for the third book in the series- which I won’t be reading.

May suit YA readers who enjoy a quick, straightforward fantasy read without complexity.